I'll start by saying if you've never read any of Julie Lessman's other books - YOU NEED TO!!! She is HANDS DOWN my favorite author, and she once again has written a book chock full of love, humor, passion, and story, story, story!! This is the 5th book sharing the lives of the very Irish O'Connor family (The Daughters of Boston series is the 1st three, and the Winds of Change series continues where the Daughters of Boston left off), and I just absolutely LOVE how Julie incorporates SO MUCH the lives of the characters we have grown to love from her previous books! So by the time you get to this book - A Heart Revealed - you already know and LOVE Sean and Emma before even starting the book! This one is a bit different than all of Julie's other books - because Emma is married, there isn't the heated romantic passion right off the bat and then all throughout the book (which is kinda Julie's "thing" in all of her other books.) Sean and Emma's story shows their love blooming through friendship, but don't worry - she still gives us plenty of her trademark passion and drama through Luke and Katie and Mitch and Charity!! And don't worry - things will definitely heat up for Sean and Emma too, so don't lose heart!! :-) The book is also full of the regular "Julie Lessman" roller coaster-like ups and downs and then of course back up again...with of course a surprise or two thrown in!! I promise - this one will be one for the KEEPER shelf - along with ALL of her other ones!! A definite must read!

Since the first time I read about Emma Malloy, I have wanted to see her with a happy ending and I am glad to say it has finally come! The story didn't end the way I expected, but it was exceptional! I loved how the story included sub-stories with Charity & her husband and newlyweds Katie & her husband - since Charity is my favorite character this made it extra special. I always wanted Emma and Sean to get together, ever since their first meeting I felt a spark between them, but because the ring on her hand belongs to another man that was never a possibility. The trials Emma has gone through are heart-breaking and I learned in this book that Sean has gone through many of his own too. I knew of Emma's abusive husband before I read this book, but this story goes into much more of the details of that abuse - nothing too graphic, but you see how crazed with unfounded jealousy he was. 'A Heart Revealed' is Julie's best work to date - though my personal favorite is still 'A Passion Redeemed'. Julie just keeps getting better and better as an author and I can't wait to read her next book - which sadly is going to be the last book in this series. I highly recommend this book, but since all her books to date are about the same family, be sure that you read all three books in the 'Daughters of Boston' series and then book one in the 'Winds of Change' series first - so you won't spoil any of it for yourself.